The Once-A-Year Family Trip To The Snow

The fat lady invited all her family for an outing in the mountains. First they left the heater on, then the hair dryer and finally the shower. What a mess – and they haven't left yet.

Without any overnight freezes the entire mountain has been soft 24 hours a day and the groomed runs are trenching-out within a couple hours of opening. Only the lack of crowds has kept the groomers in any state of fun. The off piste has not been cutting up as badly and has generally provided faster skiing than the whiter, softer, sticker groomed runs.

Friday morning was fun but the number of runs on offer greatly reduced. Early Saturday morning I had some fast fun with Traktorman and Waz before it all began to rut up badly. We did a few on Supertrail and then proceeded down Rossi racecourse and Sundowner to Friday Flat where you had to walk 50m to get on Gunbarrel chair. We had a good run down skier's right of High Noon. The jump park had been groomed out leaving a good snow cover until you passed under Merritts chair.

Traktorman and Wazza then joined Jax to go out on the main range. Due to the strength of the prevailing wind, Annie and I cancelled our plans to lunch on the main range and instead proceeded to trash out the off piste from Karels until lunch time at Eagles Nest, after which, I had an enjoyable run down The Bluff and then negotiated the thinning and narrowing Supertrail back to base.

I was awoken before sunrise this morning by heavy precipitation hitting the metal roof. It was either hail or sago or both. Despite the forecast of “fine and sunny” the morning passed with ongoing showers of rain, hail and sago and every time I thought of going out it started again. The lifts were placed on lightning hold at least once and the sky remained black most of the day.

After lunch and following Annie's departure I just had to go and see. I think I passed the IQ exam, as it didn't rain while I was out there this afternoon. I'm sure some would argue the point as the snow cover is extremely soft and that is only where there is still snow cover.

I was surprised to see what damage the rain had done. The weather station said 5.4mm of precip. Considering the amount of hail and sago I was aware of, I would suggest may be 50mm of rain had fallen overnight and today. Merritts creek has broken through in so many places that it is above the snow more than it is under the snow. There was not continuous snow on Cat Track, Milk Run, High Noon or even the traverse from Antons to Sponars.

Ironically the best snow was on Sponars. The main reason I went out this afternoon was to farewell Sponars for the season having been told yesterday that today was it's last day of operation for this year. Skier's left of the T-bar was by far the best snow I found anywhere on the mountain this afternoon. I did it several times. Waimea was OK, Supertrail was cr*p but I suspect the groomers will do a good job rebuilding the resort for tomorrow.

Karel's rock garden groomed on Friday

Merritts' Creek opening up all over

Grass leading out to Signature Hill on Friday

Friday - Hump Run, Lower World Cup
It's all closing down

Friday Flat on Saturday morning

The groomers have been working hard to keep Karels T-bar open

Anne and I trashed Karels on Saturday morning

Looking towards the bottom of Antons and Merritts today

Above Gunbarrel yesterday and today

High Noon and Sundance today

Without some good freezes and a miracle dump, it's all over red rover.

The forecasts look horrid – lots of rain. Looking on the good side, the dams are filling rapidly.
And, if this is all due to global warming I'll have one of the last water frontages before we all go under.

Pre Grump: For anyone reading this report and thinking I have an issue with women of above average weight – it's not true – the 'fat lady' mentioned above (as many of you will know) is an Opera term defining the end of a long and possibly tiring opera. Oh, oh, now I've offended some opera fans. You just can't win some days ;-)